In modern aircraft, advances in sensor and information processing technologies have lead to a significant increase in the amount of information available to a pilot. Although this generally enables the pilot to gain a better situational awareness at any given time, the pilot often is required to scan information from several sources in order to gain that situational awareness. In addition, with the increased complexity of modern aircraft, the pilot may be required to control more aircraft systems and sub-systems than were present in less technologically complex aircraft of the past.
During aircraft operations, a pilot is required to accurately determine and maintain continual awareness of various elements of the current aircraft status, such as speed, altitude, location, direction of flight, external atmospheric conditions, cabin conditions, fuel status, and rate of change of various parameters, among a host of other things. Furthermore, it is particularly important to ensure, during take-off and landing, that the aircraft is functioning normally within various parameter bounds, and that external conditions are favorable for the take-off or landing maneuvers. However, in general, given the number of parameters that a pilot needs to accurately determine and monitor during the various phases of aircraft operations, the pilot may have very limited time to make important decisions regarding control of the aircraft. In addition, the pilot frequently may be required to remove a hand from the control instrumentation and to divert his or her attention from the task at hand to manipulate physical components of a user interface (e.g., keys, dials, buttons, levers, and so on) in order to alter the aircraft operations in light of the information associated with the monitored parameters. The monitoring and control of the aircraft may impose a considerable amount of strain on a pilot, at times. Accordingly, what are needed are enhanced user interfaces for aircraft and other systems, which enable a system user (e.g., a pilot) to interact with the aircraft in a less onerous manner.